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Emerson,Lake,Palmer-Brain Salad Surgery 40th Anniversary

Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends! Do not let revisionists try to convince you otherwise: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer were HUGE arena fillers and sales monsters ( UK #2 sales, Top 10 US ) and quite innovative progressive rockers forty years ago when Brain Salad Surgery came out. Any accounting of Progressive Rock’s defining albums from the genre’s golden age must include this fourth ELP album.

It certainly is no accident that Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer each had a hand in actually defining the Prog Rock sound, albeit individually in separate bands, Emerson as a keyboard innovator with The Nice; Greg Lake writing and singing on the 1969 King Crimson groundbreaker In the Court of the Crimson King ; and Carl Palmer exhibiting power and space-filling percussion in the trio Atomic Rooster.

On Brain Salad Surgery, no one can deny that the repertoire is undeniably eclectic and adventurous. The album opener ” Jerusalem” features lyrics by English poet William Blake; the over-the-top synthesizer and electronic percussion in “Toccata” occurs while re-interpreting Argentinian composer Albert Ginestera‘s “First Piano Concerto, 4th Movement”;” Still You Turn Me On” continues the gorgeous Greg Lake ballads in the tradition of his “Lucky Man” and “From the Beginning” ; and the album centerpiece “Karn Evil 9″ was uncannily prescient by predicting the Computer Age a full four decades ago. Keith Emerson, Greg Lake, and Carl Palmer are guests In the Studio, thanks to long time ELP manager Stewart Young who has been a loyal supporter of In the Studio with Redbeard from our inception twenty-six years ago. Co-manager for Emerson, Lake, and Palmer is Martin Darvill. - Redbeard